GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, 10 April 2003 — Clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians yesterday killed at least four people, including a 16-year-old boy, as thousands poured into the streets to mourn seven killed in a missile strike the night before.

Israeli troops shot and killed a 21-year-old member of the Islamic militant group Hamas, a 35-year-old policeman, a 27-year-old policeman, and a 16-year-old boy, witnesses said yesterday. The army said it fired at the 21-year-old, who was near a rocket launcher, but was unaware of the other two deaths.

Earlier yesterday, Hamas militants fired a homemade rocket at an Israeli town in retaliation for a missile strike that killed a top Hamas commander and six others on a Gaza street. There were no injuries in yesterday’s rocket attack on the town of Sderot.

Thousands poured into the streets yesterday for the funerals of the seven people killed in the previous day’s missile strike.

An Israeli F-16 warplane fired a missile that slammed into a white car, turning the vehicle into a pile of flaming rubble. A second missile exploded in the street, wounding at least 50 bystanders, witnesses said.

The coffins of the dead were covered in green Hamas flags. Angry mourners shouted, “God is great! Revenge, revenge!” Some fired guns in the air.

Israeli security sources said the target of Tuesday’s air strike was Saed Arabeed, 38, a senior Hamas commander responsible for a series of deadly raids against Israelis over the past decade.

Two of the others killed were Hamas militants, Palestinians said, while the other casualties were civilians.

In political developments, meanwhile, the Palestinian prime minister-designate was running into obstacles from Yasser Arafat in putting together a new Cabinet. The disputes could delay publication of a US-backed Mideast peace plan, and President Bush was showing some impatience.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister-designate, asked for a two-week extension to form his Cabinet. Abbas and Arafat met yesterday with German Foreign Joschka Fischer, the first senior government minister to visit Arafat since the Israelis destroyed most of his office compound last year.

Publication of the peace plan depends on Abbas assuming power. The plan — sponsored by the United States, Europe, Russia and the United Nations — is known commonly as the “road map” and calls for Palestinian statehood in 2005.

Arafat grudgingly appointed Abbas, his longtime PLO deputy, after intense international and domestic pressure to reform his corruption-plagued regime.

A crucial dispute has arisen over the appointment of an interior minister to command the security forces. Abbas favors former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, who also is backed by international mediators and is seen as likely to reform competing security branches.

Arafat wants to retain longtime aide Hani Al-Hassan, who has served as interior minister for six months but has made no move toward reforms.

An explosion in a West Bank high school, meanwhile, injured at least 29 students yesterday, Palestinian police said. At least four of those students were wounded seriously.

A student at the school in Jaba, a village outside the West Bank city of Jenin, was playing with the explosive device before it went off, police said. The student found it outside the school and brought it to the classroom, said Haider Ershade, Jenin’s mayor.

The Israeli Army said there were no forces in the area at the time but troops often patrol the village searching for militants.

Palestinian police checked the shrapnel found at the scene and said the device was Israeli-made and had Hebrew lettering on it, Ershade said.